Efforts continue to develop and deploy the technology to deliver data—voice, audio, etc.—at ever higher rates to customers. To facilitate wireless communications, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has promulgated a number of wireless standards. These include the 802.11 (WiFi) standards and the 802.16 (WiMAX) standards. Likewise, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has promulgated standards to facilitate wireless communications. This includes TIA-856, which is also known as Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO). The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has also promulgated a standard known as long term evolution (LTE). Additional standards such as the fourth generation communication system (4G) are also being pursued. These standards pursue the aim of providing a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data, and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an “anytime, anywhere” basis. These standards also aim to provide higher data rates than previous generations. All of these standards may include specifications for various aspects of wireless communication with a network. These aspects include processes for registering on the network, carrier modulation, frequency bands of operation, and message formats.
One of many goals of these wireless technologies is to solve the so-called “last mile problem.” The “last mile” refers to the final connection of delivering service from a service provider to a customer. This is an expensive task for service providers since it usually involves rewiring established residences and businesses with higher capacity connections—typically optical fiber. In other words, while it is usually relatively inexpensive to provide a high speed, high capacity trunk line to any particular community, providing connections from each residence and business to the trunk line can be quite an expensive task, at least in already developed areas.
Many of these wireless technologies take advantage of a communications technology known as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM communication signals increase the bandwidth and data capacity by spacing subchannels (or subcarriers) very close to each other and still avoid interference because the subchannels are orthogonal to each other. Using this scheme, some wireless technologies can theoretically transmit up to 30 miles requiring line of sight (LOS). However, cell sizes have a small radius of around 5 miles or less for providing high data rate and uniform coverage throughout the cell.
Wireless communications systems, including WiMAX, are designed to provide wireless communications services at a particular channel bandwidth based upon system performance and area of coverage. Wireless system performance in urban areas in particular is likely to be influenced by a variety of factors including but not limited to new construction and changing received signal strengths by wireless devices. When the channel condition is poor, that is, when the signal received by a wireless device is weak, then error rates in the received transmission are likely to increase, thereby requiring the data in the signal to be retransmitted. The result is that when the signal is poor and the system configuration remains the same, it is probable that the overall performance of system will be poor.
Overview
There is disclosed herein a method for altering a channel bandwidth in a wireless system, wherein the method comprises sending to a wireless device a report request message comprising an indicator of an ability to change the channel bandwidth from a first channel bandwidth to a second channel bandwidth, receiving a report response message from the wireless device at an access node, wherein the report response message comprises a channel condition for the wireless device, and changing the channel bandwidth from the first channel bandwidth to the second channel bandwidth based upon the channel condition.
There is further disclosed herein a method for altering a channel bandwidth in a wireless system, wherein the method comprises receiving at a wireless device a report request message from an access node wherein the report request message requests an indicator of an ability of the wireless device to change the channel bandwidth from a first channel bandwidth to a second channel bandwidth, sending a report response message from the wireless device to the access node, wherein the report response message comprises a channel condition for the wireless device and the indicator of the ability of the wireless device to change the channel bandwidth from the first channel bandwidth to the second channel bandwidth, and changing the channel bandwidth from the first channel bandwidth to the second channel bandwidth based upon the channel condition.